Web browsers may use a number of protocols and standards to obtain or manage content flow. Most browsers primarily use hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) to fetch content and web pages. Web pages are located using a uniform resource locator (URL), which identifies where the web page may be found. Web pages may be retrieved using the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the computer holding the web page content. In order to be more memorable and human friendly, an IP address or hierarchy may be represented by a hostname (such as www.google.com). A hostname is a domain name that has one or more associated IP addresses. Hostnames and other information associated with domain names may be resolved or translated to IP addresses using the Domain Name System (DNS). This DNS resolution system is sometimes referred to as the “phone book” for the Internet.
DNS resolution requires either looking in a local computer cache for a DNS resolution or querying a set of DNS servers over the network. DNS utilizes authoritative DNS resolvers to help map domain names to IP addresses. Multiple DNS resolvers may be used in order to avoid having all the information in a single, central DNS server. Local and global DNS servers may provide DNS resolutions.
DNS resolution normally looks to a local DNS resolver, typically on an intranet, to provide a DNS resolution before obtaining a DNS resolution from an external DNS resolver, such as a global DNS resolver, that provides DNS resolutions on a more global basis. For example, FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary system 100 that performs DNS resolution. When network traffic is required, a network request for a resolution is created. If not satisfied locally, the request is sent, most commonly via User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packets and occasionally via TCP/IP packets (or similar) to a DNS resolver, and eventually a response is provided. If a DNS resolution is not selected from a local cache, such as DNS cache 110, DNS resolution is requested from local DNS resolver 130 located within the same Local Area Network (LAN) 120. Next, a DNS resolution may be requested, if necessary, from an external DNS resolver such as global DNS resolver 150 or main DNS server 170 over external network 140. There is a latency time required to request DNS resolution from local DNS resolver 130 and then from DNS global resolver 150.
DNS resolvers are often slow, and/or underprovisioned by internet service providers, resulting in high latency when resolving domain names. Longer latency times cause discomfort to users of a web browser. Some vendors, such as GOOGLE and its global DNS resolver, gDNS, have provided high-speed DNS resolution service, but such services go largely unused because of the difficulty of integrating a second (or alternate) global resolution service, while still providing local (LAN) resolutions and maintaining correctness.